Not many Nigerians are aware of the role the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS) plays in labour education. Established via Act Cap 261 of the Laws in 1983, MINILS has been promoting labour education and building the capacity of workers, employers and government officials in labour and industrial relations. In this special report, Assistant Features Editor CHINAKA OKORO examines the trajectory of the country’s foremost labour institute under its current leadership, revealing stakeholders’ call for renewal of its appointment.
The Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS) which was established in 1983 aimed at building the capacity of workers, employers and government officials in labour and industrial relations. This is achieved through training, research and fostering inter-institutional linkages to promote best practices and achieve industrial harmony for sustainable development.
The Institute, named after Nigeria’s foremost union leader, Pa Michael Athokhamien Omnibus Imoudu, undertakes extensive initiatives aimed at building the capacity of workers and their unions; promoting exchange between industrial relations parties in the interest of industrial harmony; developing international linkages to encourage best practices and global solidarity and advancing the frontiers of unionism.
As a result of its role in fostering strategic and peaceful relationships between the government and labour, the former Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, in 2022, recommended that labour leaders should visit the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS) for labour education.
Ngige’s comments came at the peak of labour agitations in the country over the hike in the pump price of petroleum products, economic hardship and other challenges during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The former Anambra State Governor emphasised the need to send a new crop of labour leaders to MINILS to study labour-related issues as the constant threat of strikes by labour unions was becoming a disservice to the country.
Not many Nigerians are aware of the role MINILS plays in labour education. Established via Act Cap 261 of the Laws in 1983, MINILS has been promoting labour education and building the capacity of workers, employers and government officials in labour and industrial relations. It does this through regular and in-plant courses and inter-institutional linkages; all aimed at promoting industrial harmony and best labour practices for sustainable national development.
Under the leadership of its current Director-General/Chief Executive Officer, Issa Aremu, the agency has been repositioned to effectively promote labour education, among other mandates.
Since his appointment in 2021 by former President Buhari, Aremu has transformed the agency from an idle institution into a vibrant organisation aligned with its statutory mandate.
Ngige’s recommendation that labour leaders be sent to MINILS is a testament to the progress made by the former General Secretary of the National Union of Textile and Garment Workers under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
That recommendation has since been graciously embraced by trade union organisations.
Transformative leadership
Before Aremu’s appointment in 2021, MINILS was underperforming in its core mandates of education, citizenship engagement, and policy advocacy, which complemented the government’s efforts.
Together with his management team, Aremu has, over the past four years, provided transformational leadership that has repositioned the once-dormant institute into a fast-performing and visible agency under the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
For the first time in its history, the Director-General initiated and inaugurated a corporate Strategic Plan (2022–2026) for the Institute. The plan outlines a framework and roadmap for the systematic growth of MINILS within the context of its enabling statute and the expectations of its stakeholders.
Currently, Aremu has made MINILS more visible and aligned its activities with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. The institute has also been active in promoting industrial harmony in workplaces, social dialogue between labour and the government, youth skill acquisition programmes, youth and women inclusion and mass digital literacy for self-employment and empowerment.
Members of organised trade unions under the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), at both federal and state levels, regularly patronise MINILS for labour education.
As good luck would have it, the Institute, under Aremu’s leadership, has effectively keyed into President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
As part of the President’s focus on workplace harmony for national development, MINILS surpassed its 2024 Ministerial Deliverables Target of 1,250, reaching over 3,000 on-site/online participants at the institute’s headquarters in Ilorin, Kwara State.
The administration’s 8-point agenda and the Labour, Employment and Empowerment Programme (LEEP) spearheaded by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Dr Nkiruka Onyejeocha, aim to promote youth employment through skill acquisition and participation in the digital economy.
To drive this mandate, MINILS trained 720 youths from across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones in entrepreneurial skills, including cinematography, photography, carpentry and textile design.
Having completed the construction of the Entrepreneurship Development Centre in 2022, equipped with sewing machines, photographic tools and carpentry equipment, Aremu has, admirably, diversified the institute’s training beyond traditional courses such as collective bargaining and grievance handling to include mass job creation and poverty eradication through skills acquisition.
Under the Federal Government’s SKILL-UP-ARTISANS (SUPA) programme initiated by President Tinubu, MINILS trained 220 participants in various trades such as tailoring, carpentry and design.
Again, Aremu’s administration has ensured a significant gender mix of male and female participants from unions, employer associations and states, including People with Disabilities (PWDs) in line with the inclusion agenda of the Renewed Hope Agenda.
Participants from all six geopolitical zones attend the institute’s annual training programmes, signifying a national reach and impact.
Another area of achievement in the past four years is Comrade Aremu’s reversal of the infrastructural and environmental decay of the institute.
He reconstructed access roads and extended them to the host community, completed a previously-abandoned U-shaped complex and renovated hostels, a 1,000-capacity auditorium and several training halls.
His role in minimum wage negotiations
During the protracted negotiations on the new national minimum wage, Aremu leveraged over three decades of labour experience. He participated in the South-West Zonal public hearing organised by the Tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee in Lagos on March 7, 2024 and the Policy Dialogue on the New National Minimum Wage Act hosted by MINILS on March 16, 2024.
Following the October 2, 2023 15-point Memorandum of Understanding between organised labour and the Federal Government, President Tinubu inaugurated a 37-member Tripartite Committee on January 30, 2024.
As MINILS Director-General, Aremu initiated a cost-of-living market survey that provided research input into the remarkable negotiations that resulted in a new national minimum wage of n70,000.
Under Aremu’s leadership, MINILS marginally improved its internally generated revenue (IGR) from subsidised courses; though these gains were tempered by inflation and high transportation costs. With improved capital and overhead budgets, MINILS plans to further exceed ministerial targets in line with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
As an apostle of continuity, Aremu has completed inherited projects, including office blocks, classrooms and hostels; built a crèche for working parents; introduced renewable solar energy; constructed a 10-kilometre access road to the Olulade host community; initiated a new administrative block; and maintained the 15-hectare institute premises.
He has also invested in staff capacity building, paid support staff regularly and enhanced the morale of members of staff, while also increasing the budget and revenue base of the institute.
As a firm believer in mass citizenship engagement, Comrade Aremu has actively promoted awareness of the Renewed Hope Agenda’s labour-related reforms, including the new minimum wage, public transportation alternatives post-subsidy and the student loan initiative. Apart from this feat, he has ensured capacity building of the Institute as part of the Institute’s core mandate by upscaling both on-site and online labour education for improved productivity and industrial harmony in Nigeria and West Africa.
Thousands of public and private sector workers have benefited from regular and tailor-made (in-plant) training delivered through MINILS’ five core departments: Trade Union Education; Labour Management Relations; Academic and Distance Learning; Entrepreneurial Development and Social Protection.
Despite the COVID-19 disruptions in 2021/2022, MINILS organised hundreds of training courses which focused on social dialogue, collective bargaining and peaceful conflict resolution.
Courses also cover labour law, leadership, conflict resolution, work ethics and trade union practice in evolving environments.
Aremu’s role in Tinubu’s election
Aremu’s experience extends to politics. As a seasoned labour leader, he was appointed as the Director of the Labour Directorate of the Asiwaju/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The directorate, inaugurated at the Presidential Villa on September 29, 2022, mobilised labour unions and civil society groups nationwide. It facilitated a Town Hall meeting between the APC presidential candidate and organised labour on December 19, 2022, attended by 1,817 labour leaders from 62 industrial unions.
The engagement was considered the PCC’s most successful and significant contribution to APC’s 2023 electoral victory.
Aremu also delivered his Alapata polling unit in the Baboko electoral ward for President Tinubu and Governor Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq.
As part of his achievements, Aremu revived the hitherto moribund national and international partnerships for MINILS, attracting resources and technical competencies.
The Institute also signed an MoU with the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ITCILO) for staff training and promotion of decent work.
Other partnerships include with: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES); Development Research and Projects Centre (DRPC); Kwara State Government; West African Management Development Institute (WAMDEVIN); National Universities Commission (NUC); University of Ilorin; Lagos State University (LASU); Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC); National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) and Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru.
International collaborations include the University of Greenwich’s Centre of Research on Employment and Work (UoG-CREW) in London and the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) ITC in Turin, Italy, which were the two major takeaways from the Nigerian delegation at the 353rd Session of the Governing Body (GB) of the ILO in Geneva, Switzerland.
As his tenure winds down, many believe that Comrade Aremu deserves a renewal of his appointment to continue his impactful reforms at MINILS.
Observers also suggest that the country still needs his wealth of experience to foster productive labour relations between the Tinubu administration and the labour unions.
